Liam gently pulled Alex off of him and stood up. Though he wanted to say something to her to console her, now was not the time for it. Every second at the moment was precious.
He couldn't allow himself to falter now. If three hours were all that was left then that was that. He would still succeed. He had to, but the question was how?
He racked his brain as his gaze swept across the guild members around him. Everyone was in utter shock and no matter what plan he thought of, every single thing needed more than 3 fucking hours.
Luna… Mia… Derek… what was he going to do now?
The woman had made sure that there was nowhere he could go and no one he could turn to. So what was he supposed to do now?
The only strength he had at the moment was his soul minions.
As he thought about it, suddenly Liam felt an alarm go off in his brain. Yes, he had his soul minions. They were not something that someone could just ignore.
They were strong and powerful creatures who could hold their own. Besides, he was able to take them out of the game. So… why didn't the woman do anything about them?
The more he thought about it the more it bothered him. Even if all his others strengths were stripped clean, these minions were more than enough. They were a terrifying force. When he had his army to face the apocalypse, what else did he need?
But still, she didn't seem all that bothered about them. The woman who went out of her way to make sure he had no place to escape, completely ignored these minions.
Was there something else that he had missed? Why was she so confident that he would fail even when he had his soul minions with him?
Liam had a feeling that something was not right. And then it struck him. What if there was something really off about his assumption? What if he was not able to take his soul minions out once the game shut down?
No, he clutched his head and shook it vigorously. Because of all the uncertainties and the impending doom, he was driving himself crazy. He was able to take the soul minions out right now so he should be able to do it after the game also. After all, they were all a part of his soul.
But then why did she leave them alone? She did not even kill them once while she was here as a part of the grand show she had displayed. The woman was so hellbent on demonstrating just how strong she was.
She went out of her way to make sure that Liam knew the difference between her and him, where they stood in the food chain and what was their respective positions in this world and the outside world.
So why did she leave his soul minions? He couldn't shake this thought off at all.
Nevertheless, he decided not to dwell on it. He needed to calm down. Calm the fuck down. Liam reprimanded himself. He snapped himself out of it. There was no use thinking about these possibilities now.
This was not the first life-or-death situation he had faced. The world had always been cruel to him and it was no different now. He needed to accept the harsh truths, what he could do and what was out of his control.
He had to face the consequences and deal with things as they come.No matter how things played out, he need to remain steady and clear-headed, or else he might just lose more than he needed to.
He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes for a minute. And then what he needed to do floated over all the other mess. It was crystal clear. Above all else, the first and foremost thing he had to do was… this so-called awakening.
He needed to awaken his mana core. He took a few more deep breaths as he contemplated this. After that, it was even more clear. This was it. This could solve several of his problems.
If he managed to awaken his mana core, not only would it allow him to retain his mana core and his level when he was kicked out of the game but there was a possibility that he could also somehow bind the PVP tower crystal or whatever spatial thing that crystal had.
If he could just somehow do that, then he could bring Luna with him.
Not just her but he could bring every single thing that was valuable out to the world with him, the legendary items, health potions, herbs, ores and gemstones. Perhaps even his followers could come out with him. The possibilities were endless.
Liam clenched his fist as his gaze filled with resolve. He was going to do this. He was going to accomplish this no matter what. This was his last hail-mary attempt.
He looked at Alex and she was in no condition to listen to him. Without wasting time he looked at Shen Yue and gave the orders.
"Gather all the legendary weapons in the guild and bring them to me."
"Tell everyone who reached level 50 to cleanse their body and form the mana core."
"Go to the guild vault. Take out everything that is valuable. Round up all the followers we have in the guild, doesn't matter whose follower it is."
"And then come find me. In the next three hours. Focus on only this."
Shen Yue listened keenly and memorized everything Liam said. "I… is there anything else I can do?" She asked, worry lines forming on her beautiful face.
Liam sighed and stepped forward to kiss her forehead. "Everything is going to change. Be ready and be alert." He let her go and turned to his right, "Luna, come on."
The fox became bigger on his signal and he then jumped on top of her. He had three hours and the clock was ticking. "Luna! Get to the dungeon blasphemous putrid."
Blasphemous putrid was a Level 80 dark element temple that was on the northern mountains, just above the Rock Temple dungeon. The whole territory was extremely dangerous and it had a lot of high-levelled beasts, but Liam didn't care about that right now.
He needed to be there and take this risk. Now was the time for taking risks.
Luna as well understood this. She could feel that something was wrong. She prepared to use her full power, full energy.
"Master…"
"We have 3 hours Luna, everything depends on it. Let's go. We need to make this count."
***
Bonus chapter~
Please thank Mountain of Books for sponsoring this chapter!
